Process to produce from bast fibre material technical fibres suitable to be immediately worked up into first sliver



TAL 2,901,776

FIBRE MATERIAL BE IMMEDIATELY SLIVER 954 ETO SELLING 0D CE FROM BAS RESUITABLE T P INTO FIRS 1 ed Feb. 5,

U1 DF p 1, 1959 H PROCESS T0 P TECHNICAL F'I II! [Him 1lllllllflllllll!llillllllll umHHIMHHIIHIWHl'HWl-WWW liWllHlHi I fiMiM wwmn United States Patent PROCESS TO PRODUCE FROM BAST FmRE MA- TERIALTECHNICAL FIBRES SUITABLE TO BE wVOERIATELY WORKED UP INTO FIRST HendrikJohannes Selling, Delft, and Cornelis Bolt, The Hague, Netherlands,assignors, by mesne assignments, to Novivlas N.V., Delft, Netherlands, alimited liability company of Netherlands Application February 5, 1954,Serial No. 408,550

Claims priority, application Netherlands February 7, 1953 2 Claims. (Cl.19-29) The invention relates to a process for converting bast fibrestalks into technical fibres, suitable to be immediately converted intofirst sliver. The process according to the invention is particularlysuitable for the treatment of flax, both grades of which, viz. theretted flax and the unretted or green one, lend themselves excellentlyto this purpose.

As is known, bast fibre material, whether retted or not, issubstantially subjected to the following treatments in order to achievea form suitable for spinning. The dry material is first led through abraking apparatus, in which the woody core of the stalks is broken andsubstantially removed. The removal of the residual woody parts, thesplitting of the coherent bundles of fibre into so-called technicalfibres, the carding and the removal of short technical fibres, takeplace subsequently in a hackling apparatus. Finally the long technicalfibres are combined to first sliver which can be spun.

The outlined procedure is laborious, since the feeding of the brakingand hackling apparatus and of the apparatus for making the first sliver,as also the transport of the material between the apparatuses, iscarried out manually. Another drawback is that as a result of the manualfeeding of the said apparatuses the quantity of material treated perunit of time is subject to fluctuations, so that both the productioncapacity of the apparatus and the quality of the product obtained remainbelow the possible optimum. As a third drawback may be mentioned thenecessity of storage between the separate treatments in order to preventstagnation.

The object of the present invention is to obviate the drawbacks outlinedabove. It consists in a process for converting bast fibre stalkswith theapplication of a braking and hackling treatment known per se-intotechnical fibres, suitable to be immediately worked up into firstsliver-by a treatment known per se also-which process is characterizedin that the bast fibre stalks are supplied to the braking apparatus bymeans of any suitable dosing apparatus, in quantities which are constantper time unit, and that between the apparatuses in which the treatmentsoutlined above are carried out, automatic means of transport arepresent, which supply the material from one apparatus to the otherwithout storage.

As a result, the treatments preceding the spinning are combined into anorganic whole, the components of which are adjusted to one another intheir production capacity and to which the quantity of material isautomatically supplied per unit of time to obtain the production andquality desired.

The invention is further illustrated by way of example in theaccompanying drawing, representing schematically a top view of apossible arrangement.

In the drawing, reference numerals 1, 2 and 3 represent a dosing, abraking and a hackling apparatus reice spectively. Automatic transportmeans 5 and 6 are located between these apparatuses, and automatictransport means 7 are positioned behind the hackling apparatus todeliver the fibres to an apparatus for producing first sliver, not shownin the drawing. Reference number 8 indicates a stock of stalksreplenished by hand. From this stock the dosing apparatus forms thebundles 9, lying side by side. These bundles are conveyed to the brakingapparatus by automatic transport means 5, and pass longitudinallythrough said braking apparatus as bundles 10, positioned in line withone another. The bundles of broken material leave apparatus 2 and enterautomatic transport means 6, in which the material will form bundles 4located side by side or even partly overlapping. After subsequentlyhaving passed through hackling apparatus 3 the fibre material is caughtby transport means 7, which convey it to the apparatus for forming firstsliver.

Other arrangements are of course possible without departing from thescope of the invention.

We claim:

1. Method for converting bast fibre stalks into industrial fibressuitable to be immediately converted into first sliver, comprising thesteps of automatically and periodically laterally separating from anirregularly supplied stock of bast fibre having stalks substantiallylying side by side bundles of stalks of substantially uniform weighthaving stalks substantially lying side by side, continuously shiftingsaid separated bundles laterally to the entrance of a braking apparatus,automatically and continuously feeding the bundles in the longitudinaldirection of the stalks into a braking apparatus so that a continuousflow of stalks is broken in the braking apparatus, automatically andcontinuously transporting the broken stalks from the braking apparatusand delivering them laterally substantially lying side by side into ahackling apparatus wherein the stalks are hackled into industrial fibressuitable for being immediately worked up into a first sliver andsupplying said fibres to the apparatus for forming the first sliver.

2. Method for converting bast fibre stalks into industrial fibressuitable to be immediately converted into first sliver, comprising thesteps of automatically and periodically laterally separating from anirregularly supplied stock of bast fibre having stalks substantiallylying side by side bundles of stalks of substantially uniform weighthaving stalks substantially lying side by side, continuously shiftingsaid separated bundles laterally to the entrance of a braking apparatus,automatically and continuously feeding a plurality of the bundles in thelongitudinal direction of the stalks into a braking apparatus so that acontinuous flow of stalks is broken in the braking apparatus,automatically and continuously transporting the broken stalks from thebraking apparatus and delivering them laterally substantially lying sideby side in partly overlapped bundles into a hackling apparatus whereinthe stalks are hackled into industrial fibres suitable for beingimmediately worked up into a first sliver and supplying said fibres tothe apparatus for forming the first sliver.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,021,269 Schlichten Mar. 26, 1912 1,238,310 Logan Aug. 28, 19171,342,771 Shely June 8, 1920 1,410,416 Shely Mar. 21, 1922 2,208,287Cochrane July 16, 1940 2,412,445 Delegard et al. Dec. 10, 1946 2,418,995Thomas et al. Apr. 15, 1947

